of Academicians, and
Professoren, of distinguished members of the press and the universities,
of poets of established reputations, and the doyens of literature, art,
and science.

As far as France is concerned, the explanation of this is simple: nearly
all those up to the age of forty-eight who are able to bear arms are now
acting instead of talking. In Germany the situation is rather different,
since for various reasons, which I shall not attempt to elucidate, much
of the literary youth of the nation has remained at home, and continues
to publish books. Even those who are at the front contrive to send
articles and poems to the Reviews (for the passion for writing dies hard
in Germany).

It seems to me to be of importance to ascertain what spiritual currents
are influencing the young intellectuals of Germany.[29]

* * * * *

It has been pointed out that in all countries the extremest views have
been expressed by writers who have already passed _el mezzo del
cammino_. We shall attempt to find the reason for this at some later
date. At present we are content again to verify this fact in the case of
German writers. Almost all the celebrated and acknowledged poets, all
those who were rich in years and in honor, were swept off their feet at
the beginning of the war. And this fact is all the more curious because
some of them had been up to that time the apostles of peace, of pity,
and of humanitarianism. Dehmel, the enemy of war, the friend of all men,
who said that he did not know to which of the ten nationalities he owed
his intellect, is now writing Battle Songs (_Schlachtenlieder_), and
Songs of the Flag (_Fahnenlieder_), apostrophizing the enemy, praising
and dealing death. (At the age of fifty-one he is learning to bear arms,
and has enlisted against the Russians.) Gerhart Hauptmann, whom Fritz
von Unruh calls "the poet of brotherly love," has shaken off his
neurasthenia, and bids men "mow down the grass which drips with blood."
Franz Wedekind is pouring out invectives against Czarism, Lissauer
against England. Arno Holz is raving deliriously. Petzold desires to be
in every bullet that enters an enemy's heart; whilst Richard Nordhausen
has written an Ode to a Howitzer.[30]

At first the younger writers as well were possessed with the same
madness for war; but, in contact with the sufferings they endured and
inflicted, it quickly disappeared. Fritz von Unruh enlisted as a Uhlan,
and